Auto Industry NewsAnd Car Reviews

About the only thing the Nissan Juke has in common with the Batmobile is that it looks weird when compared to every other car on the road. In the Batmobile's case, the weirdness is more like a superhero-level awesomeness, whereas in the Juke's case it's... well, just weird. That hasn't stopped Nissan from building a Dark Knight Rises Juke and awarding it to one lucky winner.

The electric car market is quickly filling out. What was once a polar market of six-figure sports cars (Tesla Roadster) and tiny subcompacts (Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi iMiev, etc.) is opening its borders and becoming more diverse. The Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid has spawned the Cadillac ELR, and the Volt's original rival, the Nissan Leaf, is soon to spawn a luxury version of its own. Infiniti is working on a luxury Nissan Leaf spin-off and plans to equip it with wireless induction charging.

When you buy a new smartphone or computer, you have about a week of enjoying owning the coolest, latest technology. Then, it's replaced by something with a more powerful processor, better screen or cooler feature. A year after you bought your phone, it's so obsolete that the manufacturer is replacing it with an entirely new version. Your consumer electronics really don't have that much of a shelf life. According to a new study, the car may be the next consumer good to experience a micro shelf life.

Subaru has issued a recall of 5,379 Outback and Legacy models built between February 15 and June 15, 2012 all designated as 2013 models. It seems that these cars may be susceptible to having defective inner and outer steering shafts on their steering columns. These shafts may become disengaged from one another, which could cause the operator to lose the ability to steer the car and result in a crash. Subaru has begun contacting owners, but if they have not been contacted yet, they may call Subaru at 1-800-782-2783 to schedule a free repair to the steering column. Read on for the full report...

Over at GM, you have the all-new 2014 Corvette, and its sure-to-follow packages like the ZR1 and Z06. Then you have the Camaro, and all its packages including the ZL1 and all-new Z28. At Chrysler, you have an all-new super muscle car in the SRT Viper, and you have SRT Viper packages like the Time Attack. But what you don't have is a Challenger package in the vein of the ZL1 (or Ford Mustang Shelby GT500). Yet. According to several reports, Chrysler is working to fill that void with an all-new 6.2-liter HEMI V8 engine that will debut on the next-generation Challenger.

Both diesel and hybrid gas/electric cars now offer much better fuel economy than the traditional gas-only option; however, they deliver under different circumstances: hybrids make best use of their electric motors at low speeds around town—indeed, used in a certain way, the Chevy Volt need never use any gas at all—whereas diesels do well over longer distances. It is therefore ironic that in Europe, where driving distances tend to be short and populations highly urbanized, diesels rule, outselling gas-powered cars, while in the USA, with longer driving distances and a highway infrastructure suited to cruising, it is the hybrid which has taken hold. All the major manufacturers offer diesels in Europe with better fuel economy than their hybrids—often more than 50mpg, something few hybrids can aspire to—and now we are starting to see these diesels coming to the US market, amongst them VW, Audi, and BMW with their 335d.a

Automakers have been busy as bees over the last decade designing lightweight, fuel-efficient vehicles for a public increasingly suffering from price shock at the gas pumps. As a result, dozens of car models and even some light trucks now average 25+ miles per gallon on the highway. Hybrids like the Prius are even more fuel-stingy, getting 50 MPG or more.

But even Toyota's ultra-efficient savings champ is outdone by a new vehicle called the Elio, which can go 84 miles on a single gallon of regular unleaded. Scheduled to be released in 2014, the Elio is causing waves across the automotive world.

With the economy still in recovery mode, millions of Americans are buying pre-owned vehicles these days. Done carefully, this is a great way to save money and still get a dependable auto. Unfortunately, you can’t always count on the seller to tell you the truth. So let’s look at some used car buying tips that can help us to separate the good deals from the lemons.

When the topic of conversation turns to ways to save on gas, it seems that everyone has an opinion. But, while all these suggestions are well-intended, not all of them are equally valuable. Take changing the air filter as an example. While it can do your car a world of good in other ways, it won’t boost your MPGs, despite what many people believe.

Other folks swear that the trick is to buy gas early in the morning, so it comes out of the pump cooler. This, too, has no effect on fuel use. So how do your separate fact from fiction when it comes to boosting your car's efficiency? Here's a look at 10 popular tips for saving gas. We'll see how much truth there is in each one.

Back in the 1980s, the automotive industry underwent a golden age of technologically advanced sports cars. Cars like the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 used technologies never before seen on the road, and as time went on, that technology trickled down. Tech-heavy cars are more common here in 2013, but we appear to be on the verge of another technological golden age involving Porsche and Ferrari. Porsche is developing the 918 Spyder, a sort of spiritual successor to the 959, and Ferrari recently revealed the LaFerrari, a direct descendant of the F40. A cornerstone of the new era will be hybrid power. Both the 918 and LaFerrari have hybrid units, and, at least in Porsche's case, plug-in hybrid technology will be trickling down to its entire line.

The average price for unleaded gas has been over three dollars a gallon since late 2010, and, despite recent drops, chances are good that gasoline will remain pricey for the foreseeable future. Because of this, millions of motorists across the country are showing keen interest in vehicles that promise better mileage for each drop of fuel, and automakers have been busy offering models to meet this demand.

Leading the way are gas/electric hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt, which can drive 50+ miles on a single gallon of gas. Backed by aggressive marketing campaigns and government tax credits, it seems clear that hybrids are the way to go for anyone who wants to save money at the pump.